Greta & Brendan’s Romantic & Baroque Inspired Wedding at Portmeirion

I’m so happy to be sharing Greta and Brendan’s wedding at Portmeirion in North Wales. This colourful and stunning little village has such a special atmosphere and it gave their day the most beautiful, baroque-inspired backdrop.

Greta and Brendan wanted a wedding that felt romantic and full of drama. They chose shades of orange and green to reflect their favourite colours and the result was beautifully vibrant and personal. Greta’s divine Khoon Hooi dress, with its sequins and feathers, brought everything together perfectly and looked incredible in the Portmeirion sunshine.

Love and thanks to photographer Jade Touron for sharing her gorgeous photography. Enjoy.

Portmeirion, Penrhyndeudraeth in North Wales. I first visited Portmeirion one weekend in 2022 with my family and I was so captivated with the Italian architecture and the beautiful bright colours. It was a lovely sunny day and one of my happiest memories of time spent with my family.

There happened to be a wedding on that day, and I remember thinking at the time how much I would love to get married there. When Brendan and I got engaged I immediately knew where I wanted it to be.

We didn’t hire an external event planner, but the wedding planner at Portmeirion, Delyth, and the team were absolutely amazing.

They took care of everything. The catering, setting out the flowers, table numbers, and favours, as well as coordinating the cake cutting and all the other little details. We didn’t have to worry about a thing, which meant we could just relax and enjoy the day.

My late stepdad had always talked about walking me down the aisle someday. Since he wasn’t able to, I chose to walk myself. It felt like the right way to honour him.

The ceremony was officiated by a registrar from Gwynedd council. The registrar welcomed everyone in both English and Welsh. We’re not Welsh speakers ourselves, but some of our guests are. Since Brendan was born in Wales and I’ve lived here since I was seven, it felt like a nice way to honour the country we grew up in and call home.

Our rings are special to us because they feel like they already come with a story. We found them on eBay – they are quite simple bands with a bit of history behind them.

I actually chose the engagement ring myself. It was also from eBay and it came from America. It is a pear shaped orange sapphire set in gold, with diamonds either side. Orange has always been my favourite colour and as soon as I saw the ring I knew it had to be mine. It’s elegant but a little extravagant. Perfect for me. I already knew Brendan was going to propose, I just didn’t know when.

I sent him the link to the ring and he bought it for me. I couldn’t wait for it to arrive and I was asking regularly for updates on its status. Brendan wouldn’t let me have it right away though. He made me wait until the proposal so he could surprise me.    

Brendan and I technically first met back in primary school when we were 9 years old. Unfortunately neither of us have many memories of each other from that time, except for one. Brendan remembers us being in the same swimming group, where he was unimpressed with my inability to dive to the bottom of the pool as well as he could.  

Instead, we prefer to think of November 2018 as the second time we “first met.” One evening at the pub, we properly caught up after all those years. We shared stories about what we’d been up to, Brendan discovered my love of shots, and I quickly discovered that our alcohol tolerances were very different. 

This soon became apparent when Brendan needed some help making his way home. To make matters worse, despite it being mid November, he had come out without a jacket. I offered him mine, not thinking he’d actually accept, but, ever the gentleman, he happily took me up on my offer. So off he went, warm and cozy in my big winter coat, while I walked beside him shivering, making sure he stayed upright. 

We finally got together in September 2021 and we never looked back. We started house hunting in November 2022 and six months later we moved into our first home together. Just one month after that, Brendan proposed. We wanted a summer wedding so we gave ourselves two years to plan and save for the wedding of our dreams.

We kept the reception styling relatively simple because the venue speaks for itself.

Each guest received a small bottle of homemade limoncello, crafted from a recipe given to me by my Italian Godmother. I also designed the labels myself. They featured an illustration of Hercules Hall with a cherub hovering above holding a bottle of limoncello.

I designed the table plan and it was printed by VistaPrint. The placecards were from JCKthescribbler on Etsy. The design was gold calligraphy on a dark green card.

Our florist was Dark side of the Bloom. We knew that we wanted real flowers for our wedding. There’s just something so special about their natural beauty, the way they look and the way they smell. We chose flowers that would add a bit of depth to our green and orange colour scheme. Rather than focusing on individual flowers, we opted for a mix of tones and textures that tied together all the different elements: the suits, the bridesmaids’ dresses, and the details of my dress.

Our cake was made by Mel’s Amazing Cakes – the cherubs on our cake and wedding favours tied into our romantic Baroque inspired theme beautifully.

We were really impressed with her work so I sent over a concept picture of the kind of thing we were looking for. Mel replied quite quickly. She didn’t seem phased by the design and was fully on board with the vision. We chose the design of the cake to reflect both our venue and little personal details. We went for an all white cake with cherubs and baroque patterns as an homage to Portmeirion’s beautiful Italian architecture. The little orange feathers were included to tie in with the dress and add a personal touch.

The flavours were just as important as the design. The very talented Mel sent us a tasting box, and our original plan was to stick with a couple of safe flavours and maybe one more exciting one, but we fell in love with three of the more unique flavours: pistachio and orange, peach and raspberry bellini and blueberry and gin. Fortunately it wasn’t just us who loved the flavours, our guests did too!

We were both a little too shy for a formal first dance, but as soon as the music started we were straight on the dance floor accompanied by all our friends and family.

Entertainment was provided by DJ Endaf Robert, who kept everyone dancing all night! @endaf_    

My favourite part of the day came towards the end of the night, when we were sitting together on the sofa near the bar as the party began to wind down. It was the first moment we could truly relax and reflect on how wonderfully everything had gone, while still catching up with guests as they passed by for one last drink.

The day comes around much faster than you expect, especially in the few months leading up to it, so don’t put things off!

One piece of advice that we were given, which we were very grateful for, was to make sure to spend some quality time together on the day itself. It flies by so quickly and while it’s lovely catching up with all your guests, it’s important to take the time to enjoy those little moments with each other too.

I left a few of the little details until a bit too close to the day, which definitely added some avoidable stress in the final weeks. But in the end everything came together perfectly, and it didn’t affect the day at all.

There’s nothing like seeing everything come together on the day and the vision you dreamed of brought to life.

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